You can access Ochsner’s emergency services in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. When you face an emergency situation, call 911 or find a location near you.

Minor illnesses and injuries are best treated by your primary care provider or Ochsner’s urgent care services. When your symptoms are severe or you have a life-threatening emergency, you need the emergency department.

From concussions and severe food poisoning to heart attack, stroke and beyond, emergency services provide fast care when time matters.

Unsure if you are experiencing a true emergency? A few symptoms that should lead you to make an emergency department visit include (but are not limited to):

• Bleeding that will not stop

• Chest pain

• Feeling and acting tired or confused after mild or major trauma

• Loss of balance or coordination

• Passing out

• Problems speaking or understanding speech

• Severe abdominal pain (it may worsen when urinating)

• Sudden leg, arm or facial weakness or numbness

• Trouble breathing or catching your breath

• Vision loss

• Worst headache ever experienced

• Wounds from stabbing or gunshot

Regardless of who you are or what your emergency is, Ochsner is here for you. Within our system, we offer the following:

• General emergency services

• Geriatric (senior) emergency services in the Senior Friendly ER

• Pediatric emergency care

• Comprehensive Stroke Centers at Ochsner Medical Center - New Orleans and Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport

• Trauma care available at Ochsner facilities, including the Level I Trauma Center at Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport – Academic Medical Center. A Level II Trauma Center is available at Ochsner Lafayette General Medical Center.

Caring professionals staff every Ochsner emergency department. They’re specially trained to diagnose and treat emergency issues so you get back to your life as soon as possible. If you need a higher level of care, we can transfer you to another facility with ease.

Need specialty care? No problem. Ochsner is home to an array of specialists. Within moments, our emergency staff can consult with cardiology, orthopedics, pediatrics, neurology, psychology and many other specialists. Specialists can even evaluate you virtually, which helps you get the right diagnosis and the right treatment as soon as possible.

When you visit an Ochsner emergency department, you’ll receive care from a team of experts. A few people who may care for you include:

• Case workers

• Emergency medicine physicians

• Nurse practitioners and physician associates (advanced practice providers)

• Nurses

• Paramedics

• Social workers

In addition to meeting your immediate needs, we actively work to improve the future of emergency care. Every emergency services department reviews data for process improvement opportunities. Additionally, some Ochsner facilities help train future emergency medicine physicians and advanced practice providers. These physicians in training work alongside our team of experts. During their residencies, they get real-world experience providing patient care to those in need.

Every day, Ochsner emergency services specialists bring health and healing to those needing critical care. Once you receive a diagnosis, your team creates a treatment plan, and care begins immediately.

Depending on your needs, your provider may prescribe medication, surgery, therapy or another intervention. Whatever you need, you get it in a timely manner.

When seeking emergency care, leave jewelry, medication and other valuables at home. If possible, bring the following:

• Emergency contact information

• List of current medications and allergies

• Medical records

• Photo identification

In the heat of your stressful moment, we strive to provide an excellent patient experience. That’s why we greet you promptly and begin your care as soon as possible.

No matter why you need emergency services, your experience will typically follow this path:

• Soon after you arrive, a nurse checks your vital signs and asks your primary reason for seeking emergency care. Based on this information, the nurse determines the severity of your problem. If your issue is life-threatening, you’ll go to a patient room immediately.

• Once in a patient room, your team works to determine or confirm a diagnosis. Blood or urine tests, along with radiology and diagnostic imaging tests (MRI, CT, ultrasound, etc.) are often ordered.

• Treatment begins to remedy whatever ails you.

• When you are stable, you are discharged home with follow-up orders. If you need additional care before going home, you may be admitted to the hospital for additional testing, treatment or evaluation.

Not necessarily. At times, there are more patients in the emergency room than there are beds available. The emergency department team makes efforts to evaluate patients when they arrive at the hospital. If a bed isn’t available, the emergency department team may talk to patients in other locations, including triage or smaller rooms, or they may use virtual technology called “TeleTriage” to ensure patients are safe and get treatment ordered or started as they wait for a bed.

The medical staff sees patients waiting and is concerned about their health, so they want to be aggressive about getting a diagnosis and potential treatment started as soon as possible — sometimes even before an emergency department bed is available. With a suspected sprained ankle, for example, a patient may be evaluated on arrival and then sent for an X-ray before an emergency department room is available. Once the X-ray is complete, the patient may be sent to a “results waiting room” and be discharged with treatment instructions once the results are available. The patient would receive an evaluation and diagnosis from the emergency department team without ever receiving a bed in the emergency room.